Young Carers Awareness Day
‘Young Carers Awareness Day’ is on the 30th of January this year; the focus of this event is to increase the public’s overall knowledge of a young person’s life is affected by being a carer. Young carers often forced to give up key parts of their childhood such as clubs, hobbies, work or even school to ensure people are given the necessary support. By increasing awareness of these issues, the resources and support that they receive should also increase in the future making their lives more manageable.
The impact that being a carer can have on a young person’s life is hard to overstate. One of the most notable effects is that it can limit the level of interaction they can have with other people their age and significantly reduce their freedom. Following a study taken last year, it has been found that around 20% of children in secondary school in England take on the role of a carer with almost a third being responsible for some manner of caring.
KIHTO have a range of products available for short or long-term hire that can help young carers with the support they provide, improving the quality of life for carers and patients.
The bespoke Arctic turning bed can help care for a wide range of complex conditions and greatly assist in repositioning and overnight care. The Arctic is easy to use and operate with all of its profiling and turning features available with its handsets. For people who need to be regularly turned and repositioned in bed, the Arctic handsets can greatly reduce or outright eliminate any need for manual handling, reducing the stress of both patient and carer. Another common issue carers face is people who need support overnight, having to forgo their own needs such as getting enough sleep to ensure the wellbeing of the patient. The Arctic bed can come installed with automated turning. This feature allows the client and carer along with the advice from our staff to decide on the movement settings.
One of the issues that patients and carers can face is transferring in and out of bed with minimal risk to either party. Needing to regularly help someone with bed transfers can put a great deal of strain on a person’s body, particularly the back over time. The Nile is an electric leg lifter that is simple to set up and securely attach onto a wide range of beds including hospital beds and divan beds with its universal fittings. Once attached, the Nile is simple to operate with an easy to understand handset smoothly lifting the legs until the pad is flush with the mattress making it easier for the patient or carer to move their legs onto the bed. The standard Nile has a 25 stone weight limit but there is also a bariatric version available that has a wider pad and can hold up to 50 stone. By using the Nile getting in or out of bed can become a simpler, less stressful experience for both carer and patient.
There are people who are very limited in terms of mobility and require constant daily assistance from a carer when it comes to sitting or standing up and other essential daily activities. This not only has a negative impact on the patient’s independence and dignity but limits the freedom of the carer. The Timor works effectively as a bed, chair and hoist enabling people who rely on others to get in and out of bed or their chair more independence. For young carers, this can give them more freedom and time to spend with friends, family or at school allowing them to have a more typical childhood.
